we watched it on my across-the-street-neighbors’ betamax. this was the kid that we would drag a piece of linoleum down the street to the basketball court to break on. we pretended not to understand when he mouthed “what the fuck?” but when we laughed at the “my G.I. Joe is just G.I. gay,” we got scolded by his mother.

that same year Detroit PBS actually broadcast Style Wars and my mom, who usually only watched PBS, had it on one day when I wandered into the room. Life. Changed. Forever.